The markets breathed something like a sigh of relief when President Trump acknowledged “people” — let’s say buyers and sellers — were getting “yippy.” He declared a 90-day pause on the allegedly “reciprocal” tariffs that had been scheduled to go into effect, except with respect to China. As Stephen Stills put it in “Carry On” — “a new day, a new way and new eyes to see the dawn.”
Charles Gasparino and others attribute the effectual yips to the market for Treasurys, in which interest rates rose and values declined. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent might been among the tarriers.
President Trump himself declared: “I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately.” I think that means the flat tariff of 10 percent remains in effect. Like the allegedly “reciprocal” tariffs, the flat 10 percent isn’t reciprocal either. It’s just a tax on imports, of questionable legality.
The 90-day delay is to be used to work things out with countries that want to work them out. It might also profitably be used to adjust the error in the formula governing the allegedly “reciprocal” tariffs and actually to make them reciprocal in the relevant sense, if they are in fact to go into effect at all. With President Trump’s negotiating style, to revert to “Carry On” — “Now witness the quickness with which we get along.”
